They spent two weeks searching for Jamie's parents, asking the few survivors of the town. When that turned up fruitless, they searched the internet for any relatives she may have, only to come empty handed again. It all seemed hopeless.
As Gabriel walked into his quarters, he found Jamie sitting at the small kitchen table, scribbling in her diary. She looked up at him as he entered, and recognised the look of guilt that washed over his face.
"They're never coming back, are they."
His shoulders slumped and he let out a defeated sigh. "No. We've done all that we can, but, they're no where to be found." He dropped his bag on the floor, walking over to his house guest who was starting to sniffle. He pulled her chair out, turning her to face him and held her as she started to cry lightly. He rubbed small circles in her back, speaking softly to her. "I'm sorry Jamie." She shifted, her tears nearing their end. "You didn't deserve this." He held her tighter, squeezing his eyes shut from guilt. "You didn't deserve any of this."
The two continued to hold each other for another minute before he realized she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He gave a small chuckle, picking her up and carrying her to his bed. Wrapping her up in his blankets, he smoothed her hair out of her face.
"I'll make sure you have a good home and family again Jamie." He stepped to the door and switched off the light, still speaking quietly. "You have my word."
Three months later, and they still hadn't found even a foster home for her, nor had they found trace of her parents. The effort had been slowly waning as she became more and more integrated into the team, with many of the women growing very attached. But no matter to whichever base he moved to for what ever mission, little Jamie stayed by his side, fighting for every moment with him.
When Gabriel returned to the base one day, Jamie, Lena, Amari, Angela, and the kid Fareeha were all clustered in the kitchen, coloring and eating snacks very enthusiastically. Jamie looked up and gave a huge gasp of joy when she saw Gabriel. Instantly she ran and wrapped herself around his legs, holding on tightly.
"You're back!" She shouted, looking up at him with her sparkling blue eyes, her hair tucked neatly into a braid that swung over her shoulder.
"Yes we are," he chuckled "and I need to be able to walk." She smiled impishly, then adjusted so she was wrapped around only one of his legs. He sighed, but reached down to lay his hand on her head as he walked over to the table. "So what have you been up to?"
Quickly she detached herself, swiping several pictures off of the table. She turned back and held one up to him. "I drew you!" She stopped by Jesse, Genji, and Moira, and handed them pictures as well.
The pictures were surprisingly well done for a 6 year old. She had even added purple and yellow dots all over Moira's, to which Moira claimed made hers the best. Jesse argued that his had his revolver and she had put Genji's shurikens in his so theirs were just as good. Gabriel only knelt down so he was eyelevel with her, smiling as he pointed to his picture.
"You made this all by yourself?" She nodded vigorously, grinning as wide as she could. "Well I think you did great kid." She leaned forward and gave him another big hug. She then ran to the others and hugged them before running back to in front of him.
"Can it go on the fridge?" She asked, basically hopping with excitement.
"I think it deserves to be on the fridge." He said, starting to stand. "Now, who wants ice cream? We deserve it."
"I DO! CHERRY!" Jamie practically shouted over Angela's and Ana's protests, while she and Fareeha started up a chant of 'cher-ry, cher-ry'.
Shenannagins like this kept happening for more five months. Everything from midnight popsicles, to eating nothing but popcorn and fast food for 3 days running, to him coming home from a mission only to find her with a short pixie hair cut. She had run about one day, pretending to be shooting everyone but Angela and Ammari. They had stayed up past bedtime watching cartoons. He snuck in doughnuts one day for breakfast and she traded the last one for a big box of small chip bags. She stashed those and traded them in for favors and treats until he found out. Soon they had a little trading empire running under Jack's very nose. He gave her piggy-back rides and she drew him pictures. He tucked her into her bed each night, promising himself as he shut her door that he would find her the right home.
He gave a small, short smile at these memories as he walked to the nurse's office. He had to explain to Angela why Mcree came back from Venezuela with a broken arm. Turning the knob he entered.
"Oh, hello Gabe!" Angela smiled, beckoning for him to come in as Jamie waved enthusiastically from on top of the counter. "Jamie here scratched herself and wanted me to put a band-aid on for her." Indeed Jamie did have a large vibrant purple band-aid on her arm, which she proudly presented.
"I'm gonna put my stickers on it!" She proclaimed, jumping off of the table.
"Oh are you now?" He smiled, setting his report file on the desk as he crouched down to be eye level with her. "How are you going to do that without getting them lopsided?"
"I'm not." He rose an eyebrow. "You're going to put them on for me!" She giggled and poked him in the arm. He smiled in return, ruffling her hair.
"Well, you go get ready. I need to speak with Angela here."
She hugged him, threw open the door, and skipped down the hall to their quarters.
"She really adores you."
The smile slid off his face. He had been thinking of that. He wondered why Jamie had gotten so closely attached to him in particular.
"Gabriel? Is everything alright?" Angela asked, concerned.
He shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing." Angela didn't look too convinced. "How is Mcree?"
It was only a week later that he understood her attachment. He had just entered their quarters, planning on the two of them watching cartoons as they ate dinner and stayed up too late again. As soon as the door closed he heard a tumbling sound and his Jamie shouting in pain, cutting him off before he could call hello. Dropping dinner on the counter, he sprinted to where Jamie had fallen down the stairs, curled up in a ball.
Gently he picked her up and set her in his lap. He started rubbing her back as she started crying, holding onto her bleeding knee.
"D-dad?" She quietly squeaked between tears.
He almost said 'no. Wrong dude.' like he would have done for any one else. Instead he found himself muttering "Don't worry Jamie I'm - dad's, here."
She sniffed. "Thanks." She muttered softly.
He continued calming her down until her tears dried. He picked her up and effortlessly carried her into the bathroom where he started washing the scrape. Internally his mind was in a wreck, wondering how on earth he had ended up becoming a dad. He would have sooner expected Jack, goodness, even Mcree to become one before he ever did.
He pushed his dilemma aside. Time enough for that later. He opened the mirror cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit.
"Hey," he pulled out the sanitizing spray "do you remember what I've told you about first aid?" She nodded. "What do you do first?"
"Clean the wound."
Slowly they went through the process of bandaging her knee, with her listing out the steps one by one. Finally, the large blue band aid was plastered on and Gabriel finally got to enjoy his chicken fajitas.
Sorry for the horribly long wait!
